Compared with their relatively poor achievement rate a decade ago, women at American universities are closing the gap on men when it comes to PhD qualifications. Whereas the number of men awarded doctorates in the biological sciences in 1997 increased by 30% over 1987 levels to 3,220, the number of women attaining this degree level rose by 82% over the same period. But in absolute numbers, there were still 1,124 more male than female PhD recipients in the biological sciences.

One research discipline that has seen one of the largest increases in women doctorates is neuroscience, with an almost-300% increase during the decade. However, the same data shows that the overall percentage of both men and women entering R&D after their PhD study years has declined from 56% in 1987 to 41.5% in 1997 for men, and from 36% to 30% for women. The data were compiled by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago from the "Survey of Earned Doctorates"—an annual census of all research doctorates granted by approximately 400 US institutions each year.